C R E AT I V I T Y
ATHENS
T
138
W W W.G R E E C E - I S .C O M
BY N I KOL A S ZOI S
© PERIKLES MERAKOS
he depiction of cities in comics has a long history. This might be because depicting urban landscapes has always been a fascinating visual project, or because, in addition to the characters, the atmosphere that surrounds them plays an important role in the plot of a story, or for other reasons. There are many examples, including Batman’s dark Gotham City, the Duck family’s happy Duckburg, Judge Dredd’s colossal Mega-City One, Moebius’ floating cities, Will Eisner’s painful and perilous New York City, Chris Ware’s old Chicago or the futuristic Tokyo of Katsuhiro Otomo. Athens, too, could not help but be a source of inspiration for Greece’s comic book creators. Giannis Kalaitzis portrays it in gray tones in “The Gypsy Orchestra.” Spyros Derveniotis, in “Fanouris Aplas,” sees it as the familiar big city of the 1990s (which complemented the stories of Dimitris Vanellis and Dimitri Kalaitzis). Leandros identifies its deformed aspects in “The Pariah,” while Alekos Papadatos and Annie Di Donna (with a story by Abraham Kawa) highlight its ancient past in the graphic novel “Democracy.” But how do younger Greek comic book artists see the city? What do they love about it, with which aspects of it do they feel most in tune, and in which parts of its daily life do they find joy? Knowing that the modern domestic comic book scene has a number of different representatives with distinct styles and abilities, we asked four Greek practitioners of the ninth art for their unique perspectives. Of course, their answers consist of colors and lines, with images and ideas that sometimes intersect, perhaps revealing some common trends or preferences. That matters little, however; in the panels that follow, Athens appears once again full of favorite neighborhoods and parks, streets and balconies, where stories both important and insignificant play out, as seen through the eyes of four creators who live in it, endure it and love it, too.
